Validity of an algorithm for determining sleep/wake states using FS-760 in school-aged children

BACKGROUND: Actigraphy is a method used for determining sleep (S)/wakefulness (W) by actigraph, a device equipped with a built-in accelerometer and an algorithm validated for each device. The S/W determination algorithm for the waist-worn actigraph FS-760 has been formulated for adults. However, the algorithm for children has not been established. The purpose of this study was to formulate an algorithm for discriminating S/W in school-aged children using FS-760 and to evaluate its validity. We further tested the generalizability of existing algorithm for adults by applying it to the children’s activity data and then examined factors associated with adult algorithm agreement rates by multiple regression analysis using combined adult and children data. METHODS: Sixty-five, healthy, school-aged children (aged 6 to 15 years) were recruited and randomly assigned to two groups: A (n = 33) and B (n = 32). They underwent 8-h polysomnography (PSG) and wore FS-760 simultaneously to obtain activity data. To determine the central epoch of the sleep/wake states (𝑥), a five-order linear discriminant analysis was conducted using the activity intensity of group A for five epochs (𝑥(−2), 𝑥(−1), 𝑥, 𝑥(+1), 𝑥(+2); 10 min) and evaluate its accuracy with the activity of group B. To reveal the factors associated with adult algorithm agreement rate, we integrated the activity, age, sleep efficiency of 15 adults (aged 20 to 39 years) and those of 65 children for multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: The mean agreement rate of the developed algorithm was 91.0%, with a mean sensitivity (true sleep detection rate) of 93.0% and a mean specificity (true wakefulness detection rate) of 63.9%. The agreement rate of the adult algorithm applied to children’s activity was significantly lower (81.8%) than that of the children algorithm. Multiple regression analysis showed that the agreement rates calculated by the adult algorithm were significantly related to mean activity of the 𝑥 epoch in NREM and REM sleep as well as age and sleep efficiency. CONCLUSIONS: The S/W states in school-aged children can be reliably assessed using the developed algorithm for waist-worn actigraph FS-760. Since the accuracy of the adult algorithms decreased when applied it to children which have different activity levels during sleep, the establishment and validation of population-specific S/W algorithms should be required. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40101-022-00303-2.